----I turned in a trespasser on a property recently. The sheriff deputy had him frisked and handcuffed very quickly on very little information, ultimately releasing him without pressing charges. I suppose the handcuffs help secure the situation and also served to intimidate a bit as the officers sorted out the facts.

Under Habeas Corpus I think they have 3 days to charge or release you. I assume this was more like minutes, though apparently uncalled for. Yon was 'arrested' only in the sense of losing his liberties for that period, but not charged with anything or denied entry.

**What the deputy did was a "Terry Stop", which is an investigative detention, based on a reasonable suspicion that a crime has, or is being committed. It is a seizure of a person or persons for a reasonable amount of time until either you estabish probable cause for an arrest or cut the person(s) loose.**

The fedspeak guy probably had it partly right - Yon's travel location history just looked fishy to them and that's all they knew.

My intentions were to write several more dispatches about missions, yet there seems to be so little interest in Afghanistan that it hardly seems worth the time to write about real missions.

There is little embedded work coming from Afghanistan. McChrystal's censorship seems to be working. (For now.) He's losing the war and covering it up. The deception is easy when so few people are paying attention. We are losing the war. At this rate it will be lost.

Military Mysteriously Cuts Short Top War Correspondent's Time in Afghanistanby Chris Carter

The military has cut short a war correspondent's embed, and there may be evidence that the decision may have been part of a smear campaign against the writer.

Michael Yon, a former Green Beret, has been covering Iraq and Afghanistan for six years. He has also covered conflicts in Thailand, the Philippines, and Nepal. Following a string of events covered by Yon that cast a negative light on two top NATO commanders, the military decided to terminate Yon's embed prematurely, citing reasons that didn't add up.

ISAF's reason for disembedding Yon was “embed overcrowding.” Yet in an email to Admiral Gregory J. Smith, an ISAF public affairs officer, Yon wrote, “I rarely see journalists. Those journalists I see have been doing drive-by reporting.”

Yon states that he has forwarded to his attorney “compelling evidence” of a smear campaign perpetrated by members of Gen. McChrystal's staff. He says that the general's staff have released official statements that are “defamatory and libelous.”

“A writer must be able to spot libel just as a soldier must be able to spot IEDs,” writes Yon. “It's part of the job. If you can't spot it, you will get hurt.”

In March, Yon began investigating a possible weapons mishap by Canadian Brig. Gen. Daniel Menard, the top Canadian general in Afghanistan and also Commander of Task Force Kandahar. Reports say that Menard nearly shot Canada's Chief of the Defense Staff, Gen. Walt Natynczyk while preparing to board a helicopter at Kandahar Airfield. According to Yon, Menard didn't acknowledge the incident until ISAF learned that Yon was looking into the matter. Menard was found guilty of negligent discharge and fined $3500 on Tuesday.

Menard has operational control over three battalions of U.S. Army soldiers. And as Yon points out in his website that “while Canada increasingly shies from combat, American units under Canadian command will spill blood under Canadian military leadership that answers to Ottawa.”

The Canadian general's defense counsel stated Menard “accepted full responsibility.” But in a separate incident just days before the shooting, Menard took absolutely no responsibility for a fatal incident on a strategic bridge near Kandahar when a suicide bomber killed a U.S. soldier.

On the morning of March 1, a suicide car bomber attacked a U.S. convoy as they crossed the Tarnak River Bridge leading to Kandahar. The bridge is a chokepoint on a crucial route between Kandahar Airfield and the town of Kandahar, and on out to Helmand Province. The bridge was damaged in the attack, which killed U.S. Army Specialist Ian Gelig, several Afghan civilians, and wounded several other soldiers. Numerous missions were canceled as the river could not be crossed.

The Stryker Brigade that Yon was embedded with was tasked with keeping the roads open. And the British Royal Air Force is responsible for much of the ground around Kandahar Airfield, including the land around the bridge. And the Afghanistan National Police, mentored by U.S. military police were guarding the bridge. However when Yon investigated the matter, he was informed by multiple officers that Menard was ultimately responsible for the bridge at the time of the attack as it belongs to Task Force Kandahar.

“Menard ultimately had responsibility for the bridge,” Yon stated in an interview. When Yon investigated the matter, he was informed by multiple officers that the bridge at the time of the attack belonged to Task Force Kandahar. Menard tried to pin the blame on his supervisor, British Maj. Gen. Nick Carter. Yet during a meeting with ISAF officials, U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Ben Hodges took full responsibility, although Yon did not believe him.

When asked why the U.S. military would possibly cover for Menard, Yon replied, “I think the cover was in the interest of Coalition warfare. An American putting it to a Canadian would have had political ramifications.”

Yon has stood alone in his criticism of Menard and received heavy fire for doing so. He called Menard incompetent and said he needed to be fired. He also stands alone saying the same about McChrystal. Yon recently wrote, “This is clear as day: General Stanley McChrystal will lose this war.”

“The reason stated for my disembed was 'overcrowding.' Clearly this is untrue,” Yon said. “The war is going poorly and it is widely known that I will call the ball where it lands. We are losing the war and it seems likely that McChrystal and staff don't want me in combat reporting their failures.”

So with the upcoming operation in Kandahar – which would be commanded by Menard – it seems entirely possible that ISAF wanted Yon out of the theater. His criticism of not only Menard but of ISAF commander Gen Stanley McChrystal could well be the reason behind the ending of his embed.

While the military may view Yon's dispatches as controversial, the American people deserve the truth. And as Kay Day from the US Report says, “No one reporting on the Global War on Terror has done a more effective or honest job than Michael Yon.”

Past statements by Yon were initially viewed as controversial – such as being the first journalist to say the “Surge” was working, or that Iraq was experiencing a “civil war.” However, these events would soon become conventional wisdom. Could his assessments of Gens. Menard and McChrystal soon become conventional wisdom as well?

Perhaps a comment from a reader at the United States Naval Institute sums it up best:

Frankly, I trust Yon more than I trust McChrystal at this point.

The man who took part in the cover-up of [Army Ranger and former professional football player Pat] Tillman’s death has lost quite a bit of credibility. In fact, McChrystal admitted as much – years later – before the Senate.

Yon, meanwhile, was right about Iraq. He was right about Afghanistan. He was right about Petraeus. He was right about Menard.

The Gobar gas piece is VERY interesting. In a third world country there are about a dozen major things missing that prevent them from moving forward. Gobar Gas addresses several of them. It gives a family unit a reason to stay in one place with a source of heat and cooking gas, a reason to keep raising animals and to grow vegetables, some productivity and more likely to get their kids some education. The lack of any attempt at an economy makes the war/stability situation in Afghanistan very hopeless.---That post gave me the opportunity to go back and read other recent posts regarding Michael Yon to find out why Crafty has gone negative on the prospects in Afghanistan. What is so striking about Yon's negative assessments is how accurate he has been covering these wars. Now I realize why no one is talking about Afghanistan. No one is allowed in to cover it.

Krauthammer had a point a while back: one thing good about having a liberal as Commander in Chief is that the other half of the country needs to gradually grasp that these are America's wars, (not George Bush's) and it is America's security at stake, not some neocon conspiracy. That gain is wasted though in mis-management and defeat.

Bush-Rumsfeld et al were slow too in recognizing failure and changing course (understatement). Maybe Obama will also snap out of this and assemble a winning team and strategy before it is too late. By now I would think McChrystal would be thrilled to take reassignment.

Okay, I intended to post his here since it is about th GOBAR gas. People here in the USA have known about the process since the 70's at least.

Biogas, anaerobically digested makes methane/ natural gas. Use it in a properly tuned 2 stroke engine and you can generate electricity. Any gas stove can also use ths stuff to cook with.......... The only question is, will there be some Islamic religious taboo about cooking with "fart gas".

Michael Yon White House Insists on Losing WarAFP: White House says Afghan deadline 'non-negotiable' www.google.comMILWAUKEE, Wisconsin — The White House said Monday that July 2011 was a "non-negotiable" deadline for starting a US withdrawal from Afghanistan, while insisting that President Barack Obama and his top general in Kabul were on the same page.

We travel low profile and today I went without my good camera gear. Was told that the Iranians sometimes shoot into Afghanistan and that my big camera might draw fire. Iranians have a huge opium addiction which is not helped by the fact that their neighbor is the biggest drug dealer on the planet. The Iranians have built a wall. I was told that they some times chase smugglers a short distance into Afghanistan and that Afghan border guards will fire back when Iranians fire in. My Afghan cell phone connection dropped but I picked up an Iranian cell carrier.

Army Dustoff MEDEVAC helicopter crews have been performing stellar work in Afghanistan. When troops are wounded, the Dustoffs go into hostile territory often while taking ground fire. Most interesting: they go in unarmed.

The helicopters are emblazoned with the Red Cross, and so according to the Geneva Conventions they are not allowed to carry offensive weapons. Just what constitutes an offensive weapon is another line of discussion, but the bottom line is that Dustoffs do not carry machine guns.

The Air Force Pedro rescue helicopters are not burdened with the Red Cross, and so they carry two .50 caliber machine guns. The U.S. Marines and British Army also don’t burden themselves with the Red Cross, nor are there the World War II-type scenes with medics wearing crosses on their sleeves. The medics are armed. In fact, some medical crews working in Kabul are armed even while in the operating room.

The Taliban and other enemies in Afghanistan do not subscribe to the Geneva Conventions. They try to shoot down any and all helicopters, and sometimes they succeed. If you ask an Afghan what the Red Cross means, he’ll likely say it’s a symbol of Christianity — and in that regard, it might actually draw fire.

There are numerous reasons why the Dustoffs should remove the Red Cross. We’ve been plagued with helicopter shortages in Afghanistan since the beginning of the war. When Dustoffs perform rescue missions, they must have armed top cover, often in the form of an Apache helicopter. By comparison, the Air Force Pedro rescue helicopters do not need top cover because they carry machine guns. And so in addition to adding more stresses to our helicopter fleet, the necessity to have top cover can lead to delays in MEDEVAC.

In September, I videotaped such a delay after an IED strike. The wounded soldier was a triple amputee, another soldier was deaf from the blast. A Dustoff crew was stationed probably two to three minutes away at Forward Operating Base Pasab. You can sometimes see the crews at Pasab running to start up a Dustoff helicopter, this one was parked about 200 meters from my tent. If it takes them seven minutes to launch and three minutes to get to the LZ, they could have been there in about 10 minutes.

The hospital at Kandahar Airfield is about 13 minutes away, and so this means the patient could have been at the hospital in about 25 minutes. Instead, it took 65 minutes.

The Army claims it took 59 minutes, but they don’t start the clock until after a “9-line” casualty report has been called up. The Golden Hour doesn’t start when the 9-line goes up; it starts when the bomb explodes. In any case, 59 minutes is a lot longer than 25, and this delay was caused because the Dustoff needed Apache top cover.

The patient was very much alive and talking, but you could hear him fading as the minutes ticked by. His buddies were saying he was going to live. The commander said to me that he was going to live, but as the minutes dragged by the soldiers became frustrated with the delay. We were sitting on a landing zone vulnerable to enemy fire, and there was little doubt the enemy knew where we were. In addition to endangering the wounded with delays, the delay also provided the enemy time to prepare to shoot down a rescue helicopter, or to attack troops who would be in the open on the LZ. A Pedro pilot with 420 combat missions worth of experience read this article for accuracy and he responded:

Pedros fly in a two ship formation for several reasons, mutual support, both with fires and mission management, and added capacity. In a dynamic and inaccurate threat environment we may launch on one Cat A, and arrive to discover additional survivors (or, God forbid, Heroes). This happened often, but as an example one of my missions in the “Cat Triangle” SE of Bastion, I was launched to rescue a Brit double amputee. 30 sec from the zone a second IED detonated and rendered a second Brit as a double amputee. Both Pedro’s effectively split and worked individual rescues while maintaining each others “back” — we minimized the time in the zone and got the survivors back as rapidly as possible. In my opinion two armed Dustoffs are better for the fight than one unarmed Dustoff and an Apache.

If the Dustoffs were armed, there would have been no delay. So why does the Army hide behind Geneva Conventions when the Air Force, Marines, and British do not? It’s not about Geneva, but about who controls the Dustoff helicopters. It’s not about the “moral high ground.” The crosses have been used as a crucifix to ward off change.

It is time to arm our Dustoff helicopters. This will serve to protect the helicopter and will allow for speedier evacuations that will help the patient and the troops who must wait in harm’s way for the birds to land.

Michael Yon, author of Moment of Truth in Iraq: How a New 'Greatest Generation' of American Soldiers Is Turning Defeat and Disaster into Victory and Hope, spent more time embedded with U.S. and British combat troops in Iraq than any other correspondent. Michael Yon has changed his focus to Afghanistan.

We know the Internet has dangers. Everything we put onto the information superhighway should be considered chiseled into marble. Meanwhile, those smartphones that so many of us carry are tantamount to carrying hostile spies in our pockets. If the battery is charged and in the phone, the phone is a homing beacon whether it’s on or off. Now add services such as Facebook, and those excellent phone cameras with geotagging, and there is a combination for disaster.

This has relevancy for our troops in Afghanistan. During certain missions, I would not even take my smartphones. On or off, I did not want to take the chance. Probably made no difference, but it’s better safe than to get our people hurt. It is important that troops make sure that journalists and Interpreters do not take smartphones during certain sorts of missions. Also, if you get blown up, that smartphone might go sailing through the air and be found by the enemy. If they crack into it, they might have a treasure chest. The last unit that I had the honor to cover was 4-4 Cav. They were good about reminding about the smartphones but some other units don’t pay attention.

My Facebook has more than 48,000 readers. They come from just about any country imaginable, and many walks of life. A few days ago, I was browsing through the menus trying to learn more about Facebook, which amounts to a passive intelligence agency of sorts. This is especially true if you have Facebook (or other similar services) on your smartphone.

And so, with my iPhone4s using a Facebook app, I touched the tab called “Nearby.” An incredible amount of “actionable intelligence” scrolled on. One friend was at the Sheraton at the Pentagon. Another was at the Pentagon. I emailed to her and she confirmed. Another was at the VA Hospital in Long Beach. Ruby Tuesday. iHop. Starbucks Fort Polk. Times Square. Pacific Grill. Home sweet home. Octapharma Plasma. China Café. FBI Academy. Tahlequah Dialysis Unit. Columbus State University. AJ’s Pizza. Farelli’s Pizza. Palladium Theatre. Home. Crossroads Christian Church. 24 Hour Fitness – Mission Valley California. The Exchange Hotel.

And on and on. With my iPhone, I could track their smartphones in real time.

Some people were also typing entries (just got on the train) and they were being tracked. One young Thai woman was typing entries and finally posted she was home at her condo in Bangkok. At the same time, another was 12 time zones away at X-treme Rockclimbing Gym in Miami, Florida.

Touch one button and GoogleMaps instantly appears showing the precise location. Touch one more button and there is a choice: “Open in Maps,” “Get Directions,” “Cancel.”

I scrolled down the list. Numerous people said they were home. Their locators pinpointed their locations. I touched the buttons and saw their locations on Google Earth. And there was one Afghan friend. I could see exactly where he was in Kabul. He is an avowed enemy of the Taliban. They have threatened to kill him. I emailed at once saying to turn that thing off. I know where you are. If he did not email back very quickly, I was going to call. He emailed back, confirmed his location and turned it off.

It’s not enough that we are careful ourselves. If we are tooling around Afghanistan together, and only one of us has not turned off the location service, we are both trackable by anyone. No special gear or warrant is needed. If someone’s child has this option switched on, the whole family is trackable, not to mention that the child is easily trackable in real time everywhere he or she goes.

Enough said.

Finally, onto a different topic. I published this yesterday:

What is Your Vote?

The United States faces greater threats at home than we face in Afghanistan. The Mexican border, for instance, is being described as a war zone. People have been warning about it for years. Over time, I have seriously considered changing focus to the more proximate and bigger threats.

I am ready and willing to change primary focus to the home front. This will require setting up shop and living in a place like Texas or Arizona. Probably Texas.

I am testing the winds. If the funding is there, it will happen. I will move home to America and get to work. If you are willing to support coverage on the home front, this is a situation where money talks. If you vote “Yes, I will support it,” please annotate your vote with a note.

The bottom line question: Will you financially support this coverage? The quality will be high. So will the price.

I've no time at the moment. Would someone look into what Yon has been up to and report back here?

Greetings,

The Army has practically put a bounty on my head. They are not happy with my revelations on the deadly Dustoff policy. So a classified memo went out instructing troops to report sightings of me in Afghanistan. Can’t make up stuff like this.

I've no time at the moment. Would someone look into what Yon has been up to and report back here?

Greetings,

The Army has practically put a bounty on my head. They are not happy with my revelations on the deadly Dustoff policy. So a classified memo went out instructing troops to report sightings of me in Afghanistan. Can’t make up stuff like this.

These dispatches are on target and they cannot refute them.

They control embeds, not access. They have no control over access.

Your Writer,Michael Yon

This is over Yon's criticism of the Army for putting red crosses on medivac helicopters in Trashcanistan. Funny enough, the jihadists don't seem to care about the laws of war and deliberately target the helos, causing additional losses.

I've no time at the moment. Would someone look into what Yon has been up to and report back here?

Greetings,

The Army has practically put a bounty on my head. They are not happy with my revelations on the deadly Dustoff policy. So a classified memo went out instructing troops to report sightings of me in Afghanistan. Can’t make up stuff like this.

These dispatches are on target and they cannot refute them.

They control embeds, not access. They have no control over access.

Your Writer,Michael Yon

This is over Yon's criticism of the Army for putting red crosses on medivac helicopters in Trashcanistan. Funny enough, the jihadists don't seem to care about the laws of war and deliberately target the helos, causing additional losses.

My sources in Kandahar say that at the moment it's calm. But that's likely because it's cold, raining and dark with a thunderstorm. Plus the villagers have many funerals to plan for. Locals want to display the bodies tomorrow in front of the PRT in Kandahar. Officials are trying to persuade them not to. All hell might break out.

Likely this will become very ugly.

This image is from my last year trip into Panjway. I wonder if this boy was also killed.

Time to bring home our main battle force. Afghanistan is not worth it.

My sources in Kandahar say that at the moment it's calm. But that's likely because it's cold, raining and dark with a thunderstorm. Plus the villagers have many funerals to plan for. Locals want to display the bodies tomorrow in front of the PRT in Kandahar. Officials are trying to persuade them not to. All hell might break out.

Likely this will become very ugly.

This image is from my last year trip into Panjway. I wonder if this boy was also killed.

Time to bring home our main battle force. Afghanistan is not worth it.

Yesterday a concerned father forwarded to me a letter from his son in Afghanistan. I confirmed authenticity, and republish with permission:

Dad,

I am fed up. I cannot believe the lack of attention the recent changes in this war is receiving by the media or the country. I think I saw one thing on CNN about the following subject, but I had to dig extensively to find it. The purpose of this letter is to let you know of the garbage that our soldiers are going through right now. With this knowledge, I hope that you take action by writing your congressmen.

First, because of the recent green on blue incidents or "insider threats" as the new buzz phrase dictates, all coalition forces in Afghanistan have completely stopped partnering with the ANA, AUP, and ALP in order to prevent the death of anymore CF casualties by ANSF or Taliban disguised as them. This is also greatly spurred by President Karzi's indifferent attitude and lack of action to take measures to prevent further insider attacks.

Second, because of this massive change in policy (and complete change in mission) all U.S. forces are forbidden to actively patrol their AO and are to remain on their respective COPs/FOBs. There are only a few exceptions to this rule and they all pertain to "hardening" highway 1 in our AO. We have received orders that clearly state that all CF will no longer be allowed to drop air to ground munitions within the country of Afghanistan. This preempts Karzi's announcement that will be made shortly that states the above mentioned order, making it a tactical directive that he is ordering.

To the first point: Our mission in Afghanistan is to partner with the ANSF on all levels. Now the policy makers are telling us that we are not allowed to do that and further more we are to take immediate measures to secure ourselves from the ANSF that are co-located with us. So the question now becomes, what is our mission? Furthermore, the implication is that we have absolutely no reason to still be in this country if we are not partnering with the ANSF. So why are we here?

To the second point: I don't think that the American citizens would be happy if they knew that their soldiers were being prohibited from defending themselves in any way because of politically driven orders, but that is precisely what is happening in this war right now even as I write this letter. The soldiers of the U.S. never engage the enemy unless we know that we have will always have the tactical advantage in defending ourselves, that advantage is the use of close air support and air weapons team. To take those weapons away from us is to level the playing field for the enemy and thus exposing our soldiers to more danger. In the school house they teach us that the minimum ratio that we are to engage the enemy with, is a 3:1 ratio. In other words, we have the highest probability of winning because we don’t fight fair. The sound tactical principles behind this teaching have saved lives. The very presence of aircraft over our foot patrols has also saved lives and now our chain of command is being told by our political leadership that this is now not allowed. If we are not partnering with the ANSF and we are not actively patrolling to prevent our enemies from massing their attacks on our COP and we can’t drop a bomb on the enemy that we have positively identified, than what the hell are we doing here?

Give us a mission or send us home. I honestly have no preference on what the politicians decide, as long as they just make a decision. Of course this will be a terrible inconvenience on the current elections so I am sure we will be forgotten, which really does not seem to be too different for how things have been going for the last eleven years.